Georgia Natural Wonder #135 - Pine Mountain - Smith Gilbert Gardens. 1,017

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Georgia Natural Wonder #135 - Pine Mountain - Smith Gilbert Gardens

We continue our Mountains to Classic South theme with our explorations in Cobb County. We come to little known Pine Mountain. It is an almost 1300 foot natural geographical feature near the town of Kennesaw.



To get to the site - go to Cobb County, GA. From US 41 in Kennesaw, follow the signs to the National battlefield Park. Turn by the park headquarters on Stilesboro Rd, and follow it for about 4 Miles.


View back to Pine Mountain from Kennesaw Mountain.

There will be a historic marker in a residential yard on the right - but keep going .... about .3 miles, and on the left there will be a road ... Beaumont Road. Turn left and go up a rather steep road.


View back down Beaumont.

Near the crest of the mountain, there will be another historic sign on the right.



Pull over there and walk to the right (past the sign) go about 50-60 feet, and the main memorial is there.





While standing there, one will see some obvious entrenchments.





And you can gaze down the hill, and one can only surmise where Howard and Sherman were standing when the shot was fired.



You can also come up Cobb Parkway (41) and take a left on Pine Mountain Road until you dead-end into Stilesboro. Go right or north on Stilesboro and take a left on Beaumont Drive. Drive until you see the Historical Marker at crest.



Geography

Pine Mountain is located at approximately 33°59'21.13" up North, 84°38'43.00" West. The small "mountain" has an approximate elevation of 1292 feet above sea level.



Contrary to the implications of its name, Pine Mountain is plentiful with various deciduous trees.



However, pines are usually the first tree to grow after deforestation, so it was likely covered with pines when it was named in the 19th century.



Looking for views from way up and atop Pine Mountain.



The mountain is also part of the ridge which divides the two watershed basins of the county.



To the north and west is Lake Allatoona, while to the south and east is the Chattahoochee River.



From here, the ridge line runs west-southwest across Lost Mountain.


View back to Lost Mountain.

And it runs east-northeast across Kennesaw Mountain and Sweat Mountain.


View back to Kennesaw and Little Kennesaw Mountains.

Now I ran into this fellow, Melvin Dishong, who lives right at the crest of Pine Mountain.



He lives right next to the Water Tower and is a big Ham Radio Operator K4JFF



He gives 1 to 1.5 hour Civil War History Tours at no charge. Phone for appointment 770-427-7923.


There were Civil War trenches all through the fence of the Water Tower property.



Then we got to climb the big tower behind his house.



And I got these spectacular views back to Atlanta.





View of Buckhead too.


That is the Hilton in Marietta just in front of Buckhead.

History

Pine Mountain in 1864. The Union forces took it over for the Signal Corps to run an outpost.



Pine Mountain is the site where Confederate Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk was killed on June 14, 1864, during the American Civil War.



Whereas Pine Mountain was the highest point between Kennesaw Mountain and Lost Mountain, it was of interest to both Confederate and Union forces during the Atlanta Campaign. Consequently, between June 5 and June 15, Confederate forces fortified and held Pine Mountain as an outpost of the main Confederate line 1.2 miles south of the line that extended from Lost Mountain to Brushy Mountain. The Confederates positioned artillery of Bates' Division, Hardee's Corps Artillery, 5th Company of Washington Artillery of Louisiana, and Lt. R. T. Beauregard's South Carolina Battery atop Pine Mountain.



View to Lost Mountain then and today.



On June 10, the Union XIV and XX Corps Artilleries redeployed from Mars Hill Church to a position facing south towards Pine Mountain. The XIV Corps Artillery occupied the left flank; the XX the right. From this location, Union artillery hoped to check the Confederates' strategic placement of guns near Pine Mountain's summit.


Rededication ceremony Sesquicentennial.

On June 14, Generals Johnston, Hardee, and Polk, while positioned atop Pine Mountain to observe the Union lines, were fired upon by the Union batteries. General Polk was struck in his upper torso by an artillery shell, and died instantly. The observation outpost was abandoned the next day, as Confederate forces rejoined the main Confederate line. Near the summit of the mountain, a stone marker of considerable height, located here 33°59.337′N 84°38.759′W, was erected in memoriam to General Polk showing where he was standing when killed.


South Side.

Thus standing a cannon shot from the enemy's guns crashed through his breast, and opened a wide door through which his spirit took its flight to join his comrades on the other shore.

Surely the earth never opened her arms to allow the head of a braver man to rest upon her bosom.

Surely the light never pushed the darkness back to make brighter the road that leads to the lamb.

And surely the gates of heaven never opened wider to allow a more manly spirit to enter therein.


North Side.

We Came - We Saw - We Conquered ....With 5 to 1

Details

In early June the battle line was occupied near Lost Mountain by the four divisions of Hardee's corps, with the three divisions of Polk's corps being next in line eastward. Hood's three divisions manned the Brushy Mountain third of these fortifications. Sherman knew the Confederate infantry was too small to sufficiently cover such a distance. Hardee's men occupied the works westward only as far as the Burnt Hickory/Sandtown road intersection (Acworth Due West Road today). His left was anchored near the log church of Gilgal. This location would become a military landmark in the days ahead. The defense of the mile or so of trenches westward to Lost Mountain became the responsibility of Confederate cavalry. By June 5, Hardee had moved Bates's division a mile north to the crest of Pine Mountain, a hill overlooking Thomas's advance along the Stilesboro Road. Polk's corps slipped a division length westward to link with Hardee, covering the absence of Bates in the battle line.



Yankee correspondence………

Major General H. W. HALLECK, Washington, D. C.:

Johnston is intrenched on the hills, embracing Lost Mountain, Pine Hill, and Kennesaw. Our lines are down to him, but it has rained so hard and the ground is so boggy that we have not developed any weak point or flank. I will proceed with due caution and try to make no mistake. The Etowah bridge is done and a construction train has been to our very camps. Supplies will now be accumulated in Allatoona Pass, or brought right up to our lines. One of my chief objects being to give full employment to Johnston, it makes but little difference where he is, just so he is not on his way to Virginia.

W. T. SHERMAN,Major-General.



Late on the morning of June 10 the Union vanguard reached Big Shanty (present-day Kennesaw) and found itself confronted by a ten-mile-long Confederate defense line that stretched from Brush Mountain on the east through Pine Mountain in the center to Gilgal Church on the west. Sherman, who had promised Major General Henry W. Halleck, the Union army's chief of staff in Washington, that "I will not run head on [against] his [the enemy's] fortifications," deployed his forces parallel to this line and instructed Thomas to have the IV and XIV Corps work their way around Pine Mountain, a move he believed would compel Johnston to retreat because that elevation constituted a vulnerable salient in the Confederate front. Polk's Headquarters were about two miles east of here.



Polk’s Headquarters Marker is at the intersection of Burnt Hickory Road NW and Hardage Trace NW, on the right when traveling west on Burnt Hickory Road NW. Hardage House on right.



Polk's last letter…..

JUNE 13, 1864-1.30 p.m.

General J. E. JOHNSTON:

GENERAL: I have had a conference with my division commanders, and have arrived at the conclusion that I could, in case of an attack on us by the enemy, hold the line now occupied by my command by a fraction more than one-third of its whole force, say 5,000 men. That presumes that the other two-thirds are out of the trenches in the rear of the line and held ready to be employed either to support the right or the left or to be used to support the front line should it be attacked. I am in receipt of your note from General Hood and perceive that he makes about the same estimate. I will call this evening and see you.

Yours, respectfully, L. POLK,Lieutenant-General.



Leonidas Polk was born with a silver spoon in his mouth…and he died with a lead shell in his torso. Nevertheless the fifty-eight years that he lived between those two events tells a fascinating story of a man who was born into Southern aristocracy, served the Lord as a minister, and died on the battlefield as a soldier. Polk was maligned by some, adored by many, and forever remembered because of his unrelenting commitment to God and his unwavering belief in serving his country.

6/14/14

All it had done for the last three days was rain. In Georgia the red clay normally starts to bake in June so that by the end of July it has those telltale fissures every few feet, but in the June of 1864 it rained. From the 11th to the 14th it rained, and would rain for 10 days after, but today one of the most beloved Confederate generals would die. Beloved not only by his men, but by most southerners and many northerners as well, this rotund man had been an Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana for some twenty years and just recently baptized Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John Bell Hood.



Called to the line by Lieutenant General William J. Hardee, the swarthy Cajun, Johnston, Polk, and others journeyed to Pine Mountain to see if the position could be maintained. William Tecumseh Sherman surrounded the Confederates on three sides and William Hardee was fearful of being enveloped by Uncle Billy. As they studied the position Rebel infantry repeatedly warned the officers that Union artillery had the range of their position, but for some reason these men chose to ignore the warning and continued in full sight of the Federal batteries. The Confederate commanders were under observation. Shortly after their arrival, Sherman rode up to the Union lines to confer with Howard, posted due north of Pine Mountain. Howard, a pious, teetotaling Methodist, had certainly noticed the commotion across the way but had been instructed by Thomas to conserve his ammunition. 




Church there now where Union Cannon was.

Sherman was amazed at the audacity of the group of Confederates gathered on the heights some 600 yards distant, in plain view and well within range. 'How saucy they are!' he exclaimed, and directed Howard to make them take cover. Although mini-balls had come nearby, the big guns were under orders to conserve ammunition and did not fire until Sherman rode up and ordered them to keep the observers under cover. The first shot scattered most of the generals, but Polk, for some reason known but to him, took his time. 



A second round struck nearby and the third round entered Polk through an arm, passing through his chest and exiting through the other arm. He was dead. Johnston stood over the man who had baptized him earlier in the campaign and cried. One of the few men who had little use for Rebels, and even less for the clergy was Gen. Sherman, who in a tersely worded statement sent to Gen. Halleck, "We killed Bishop Polk yesterday and have made good progress today..." 


Civil War view, mountain cleared and open view.

An interesting note: Polk donated the land for Maury County's Saint John's Church. It was so beautiful that General Patrick Cleburne remarked, "It is almost worth dying for to be buried in such a beautiful place." After Cleburne's death a few days later at the Battle of Franklin he was buried there until later disinterred. 



The Polk Monument is a tall shaft erected on the spot where Leonidas Polk fell that fateful day. Beginning in the 1890's many of the important events of The Civil War were being commemorated. A Marietta, Georgia soldier and his wife had the monument built to honor the general, fearing others would forget him. The monument is on private property but still accessible.



Leonidas Polk (April 10, 1806 - June 14, 1864) was a Confederate general in the American Civil War who was once a planter in Maury County, Tennessee, and a second cousin of President James K. Polk. He also served as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana and was for that reason known as The Fighting Bishop.


James K. Polk.

Polk was one of the more controversial political generals of the war, elevated to a high military position with no prior combat experience because of his friendship with Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He fought as a corps commander in many of the major battles of the Western Theater, but is remembered more for his bitter disagreements with his immediate superior, Gen. Braxton Bragg of the Army of Tennessee, than for his success in combat. While serving under the command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, he was killed in action in 1864 during the Atlanta Campaign.



Polk was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Sarah (Hawkins) Polk and Colonel William Polk, a Revolutionary War veteran and prosperous planter. He was of Scottish and Scotch-Irish ancestry. Capitalizing on his position as chief surveyor of the central district of Tennessee, William was able to acquire about 100,000 acres of land. Polk attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill briefly before entering the United States Military Academy at West Point. During his senior year, he joined the Episcopal Church, baptized in the Academy Chapel by Chaplain Charles P. McIlvaine, who later became the Episcopal Bishop of Ohio. Polk had an impressive academic record, excelling in rhetoric and moral philosophy. He graduated eighth of 38 cadets on July 1, 1827, and was appointed a brevet second lieutenant in the artillery.


 
Polk resigned his commission on December 1, 1827, so that he could enter the Virginia Theological Seminary. He became an assistant to Bishop Richard Channing Moore at Monumental Church in Richmond, Virginia. Moore ordained Polk as a deacon in April 1830 and a priest the following year. On May 6, 1830, Polk married Frances Ann Deveraux, daughter of John and Frances Pollock Devereaux; her mother was the granddaughter of Puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards. The Polks had eight children.



In 1832, Polk moved his family to the vast Polk "Rattle and Snap" tract in Maury County, Tennessee, and constructed a massive Greek Revival home he called "Ashwood Hall". Polk was the largest slaveholder in Maury County, Tennessee, in 1840, with 111 slaves. (By 1850, census records state that Polk owned 215 slaves, but other estimates are as high as 400.) With his four brothers in Maury County, he built a family chapel, St. John's Church, at Ashwood. He also served as priest of St. Peter's Church in Columbia, Tennessee. He was appointed Missionary Bishop of the Southwest in September 1838 and was elected Bishop of Louisiana in October 1841.


He was as good as money in Louisiana.

Bishop Polk was the leading founder of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, which he envisioned as a national university for the South and a New World equivalent to Oxford and Cambridge, both in England. Polk laid and consecrated the cornerstone for the first building on October 9, 1860. Polk's foundational legacy at Sewanee is remembered always through his portrait Sword Over the Gown, painted by Eliphalet F. Andrews in 1900. After the original was vandalized in 1998, a copy by Connie Erickson was unveiled on June 1, 2003.



At the outbreak of the Civil War, Polk pulled the Louisiana Convention out of the Episcopal Church of the United States. Although he hoped that secession would result in a peaceful separation of the North and South and suggested that he was reluctant to take up arms personally, he did not hesitate to write to his friend and former classmate at West Point, Jefferson Davis, offering his services in the Confederate States Army. Polk was commissioned a major general on June 25, 1861, and ordered to command Department No. 2 (roughly, the area between the Mississippi River and the Tennessee River). He committed one of the great blunders of the Civil War by dispatching troops to occupy Columbus, Kentucky, in September 1861; the critical border state of Kentucky had declared its neutrality between the Union and the Confederacy, but Polk's action was instrumental in prompting the Kentucky legislature to request Federal aid to resist his advance, ending the state's brief attempt at neutrality and effectively ceding it to Union control for the remainder of the war.



Polk's command saw its first combat on November 7, 1861, in the minor, inconclusive Battle of Belmont between Polk's subordinate, Brig. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow and Union Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Although not present on the battlefield himself, Polk was wounded nearby on November 11 when the largest cannon in his army, nicknamed "Lady Polk" in honor of his wife, exploded during demonstration firing. The careless soldiers let a shell jam in the cannon after the battle of Belmont. They didn't unload the unfired shell in the hot barrel and it cooled tight around the shell. An angry Polk ordered the gun fired to clear it. The cannoneers knew the gun would probably blow up and kill them all. Yet they obeyed and perished in the predicted explosion. One young rebel put on a new uniform so he would look nice for his funeral, or so the story went. The explosion killed nine men and stunned Polk and blew his clothes off, requiring a convalescence of several weeks. During this period Polk argued about strategy with his subordinate, Pillow, and his superior, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, commander of Confederate forces in the Western Theater. Resentful that his former West Point roommate was giving him orders, he submitted a letter of resignation to President Davis on November 6, but Davis rejected the request.


Conference of Confederate commanders the night before the battle of Shiloh. From left to right, Gen. P. G. T Beauregard, Gen. Leonidas Polk (seated), Gen. John C. Breckinridge, Gen. A. S. Johnston, Gen. Braxton Bragg, and Maj. J. F. Gilmer. Gen. W. J. Hardee was not present.

In April 1862, Polk commanded the First Corps of Albert Sidney Johnston's Army of Mississippi at the Battle of Shiloh and continued in that role for much of the rest of the year under Gen. Braxton Bragg, who replaced Beauregard, who had assumed command following the death of A. S. Johnston, killed on the first day at Shiloh. At various times his command was considered a corps and at other times the "Right Wing" of the army. In the fall, during the invasion of Kentucky by Bragg and Maj. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, Polk was in temporary command of the Army of Mississippi while Bragg visited Frankfort to preside over the inauguration of a Confederate governor for the state. Polk disregarded an order from Bragg to attack the flank of the pursuing Union Army near Frankfort.


State Capital Frankfurt.

Bragg thoroughly despised ... the genial but pompous and often incompetent Bishop Polk. Bragg considered Polk "an old woman, utterly worthless", especially at disciplining men. Unfortunately for Bragg and for the Confederacy as a whole, Polk remained a great favorite of Jefferson Davis despite carefully couched hints from Bragg, which protected the irritatingly self-righteous Polk from the increasingly sycophantic Bragg and made his appointment to wing command a political necessity.


Polk Monuments everywhere.

At the Battle of Perryville, Polk's right wing constituted the main attacking force against Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio, but Polk was reluctant to attack the small portion of Buell's army that faced him until Bragg arrived at the battlefield. One of the enduring legends of the Civil War is that Polk witnessed his subordinate, Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Cheatham, advancing his division. Cheatham allegedly shouted, "Give 'em hell, boys!" and Polk, retaining the sensibility of his role as an Episcopal bishop, seconded the cheer: "Give it to 'em boys; give 'em what General Cheatham says!"


Perryville.

After Perryville, Polk began a year-long campaign to get Bragg relieved of command, hoping to use his close relationship with President Davis to accomplish his goal. Despite the failure of his Kentucky campaign, Bragg was retained in command, but this did nothing to reduce the enmity between Polk and Bragg. Polk was promoted to lieutenant general on October 11, 1862, with date of rank of October 10. He became the second most senior Confederate of that rank during the war, behind James Longstreet. In November, the Army of Mississippi was renamed the Army of Tennessee and Polk commanded its First Corps until September 1863.


Famous for his prayer at Perryville.

Polk fought under Bragg at the Battle of Stones River in late 1862 and once again Bragg's subordinates politicked to remove their army commander after an unsuccessful battle (the battle was tactically inconclusive, but Bragg was unable to stop the advance of the Union Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans and Bragg withdrew his army to Tullahoma, Tennessee). Bragg was also unsuccessful in resisting Rosecrans's advance in the Tullahoma Campaign, which began to threaten the important city of Chattanooga. In the face of Rosecrans's expert maneuvering of his army, Polk counseled Bragg to retreat rather than stand and fight in their Tullahoma fortifications.



Rosecrans eventually maneuvered Bragg out of Chattanooga and the Army of Tennessee withdrew into the mountains of northwestern Georgia with the Army of the Cumberland in hot pursuit. Bragg planned to attack and destroy at least one of Rosecrans's corps, advancing separately over mountainous roads. He was infuriated when Polk's division under Maj. Gen. Thomas C. Hindman failed to attack an isolated Union corps at Davis's Cross Roads as ordered on September 11. Two days later, Polk disregarded orders from Bragg to attack another isolated corps, the second failed opportunity. At the Battle of Chickamauga, Polk was given command of the Right Wing and the responsibility for initiating the attack on the second day of battle (September 19). He failed to inform his subordinates of the plan and his wing was late in attacking, allowing the Union defenders time to complete their field fortifications. Bragg wrote after the war that if it were not for the loss of these hours, "our independence might have been won."



Chickamauga was a great tactical victory for Bragg, but instead of pursuing and destroying the Union Army as it retreated, he laid siege to it in Chattanooga, concentrating his effort against the enemies inside his army instead of his enemies from the North. He demanded an explanation from Polk on the bishop's failure to attack in time on September 20 and Polk placed the blame entirely on one of his subordinates, Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill. Bragg wrote to President Davis, "General Polk by education and habit is unfit for executing the plans of others. He will convince himself his own are better and follow them without reflecting on the consequences." Bragg relieved Polk of his command and ordered him to Atlanta to await further orders. Although Polk protested the "arbitrary and unlawful order" to the Secretary of War and demanded a court of inquiry, he was not restored to his position and Davis once again retained Bragg in army command, despite the protestations of a number of his subordinate generals.



President Davis transferred his friend Polk to command the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana (December 23, 1863 - January 28, 1864) and then the Department of Alabama and East Mississippi (January 28 - May 4, 1864), giving him effective command of the state of Mississippi following the departure of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to replace Bragg in command of the Army of Tennessee. Polk unsuccessfully attempted to oppose Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's raid against Meridian, Mississippi, in February 1864. In May, he was ordered to take his forces and join with Johnston in resisting Sherman's advance in the Atlanta Campaign. He assumed command of the Third Corps of the Army of Tennessee (which was nicknamed the "Army of Mississippi") on May 4.


Flag of Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk's Corps, Army of Mississippi.

Polk brought more than 20,000 men with him to Georgia. Because of his elevated rank, he became the army's second in command under Johnston. By using successive flanking maneuvers, Sherman forced Johnston to withdraw his army from strong defensive positions to protect the Confederate line of communication. This forced Johnston ever closer to the critically important city of Atlanta.



On June 14, 1864, Polk was scouting enemy positions near Marietta, Georgia, with his staff when he was killed in action by a Federal 3-inch (76 mm) shell at Pine Mountain. The artillery fire was initiated when Sherman spotted a cluster of Confederate officers - Polk, Hardee, Johnston, and their staffs - in an exposed area. He pointed them out to Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, commander of the IV Corps, and ordered him to fire on them. The 5th Indiana Battery, commanded by Capt. Peter Simonson, obeyed the order within minutes. The first round came close and a second even closer, causing the men to disperse. The third shell struck Polk's left arm, went through the chest, and exited hitting his right arm then exploded against a tree; it nearly cut Polk in two.



Advancing Union soldiers found the Georgia clay soaked with blood the next day, along with a note reportedly staked by a ramrod into the ground nearby: 'You damned Yankee sons of bitches have killed our old Gen. Polk.'


"Crest of Pine Mountain, Where General Polk Fell" by Kara Walker.

Although his record as a field commander was poor, Polk was immensely popular with his troops, and his death was deeply mourned in the Army of Tennessee. Polk's funeral service at Saint Paul's Church in Augusta, Georgia, was one of the most elaborate during the war. His friend Bishop Stephen Elliott of Georgia presided at the service, delivering a stirring funeral oration. He was buried in a location under the present-day altar. The church has a monument to the bishop near the altar, and the original grave site can be visited. In 1945, his remains and those of his wife were reinterred at Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans.



His grave can be found in the front floor sanctuary, to the right of the pulpit.



Polk's nephew, Lucius E. Polk, was also a Confederate general. Polk's son, William Mecklenburg Polk, was a physician and a Confederate captain, who later authored his most flattering biography.


We talked about Lucius being wounded permanently a few days later in GNW #133 (Part3).

Fort Polk in Louisiana is named in Bishop Polk's memory. Leonidas Polk appears as a character in three novels about the Battle of Shiloh. In Jeff Sharaa's A Blaze of Glory, Polk is an important supporting character, as he is also in Daniel F. Korn's Dawn's Gray Steel. Polk is a minor figure in Shelby Foote's Shiloh. Polk's appearance in Alden Carter's Bright Starry Banner, a novel about the Battle of Stone's River, was more controversial, as Polk was depicted as unhinged.



BIG SHANTY, GA., June 15, 1864 - 7.30 p. m.

(Received 2 a. m. 16th.)

Major General H. W. HALLECK,Washington, D. C.:

After the long storm has cleared away I examined carefully our whole front, and found the enemy occupying the series of broken ridges and hill which forms the water-shed between the Etowah and Chattahoochee, embracing three prominent peaks, Kennesaw, Pine Hill, and Lost Mountain. Pine Hill is about four miles southwest of Kennesaw, and was the apex of the triangle, the salient of the enemy's position. All seemed well fortified, and connected by lines of breast-works in the midst of dense chestnut woods. I first ordered Thomas to push Palmer's and Howard's corps in the interval between Kennesaw and Pine Hill, till they occupied a certain road, the batteries in front of Pine Hill occupying the attention of the enemy. One of these shots killed Bishop Polk. The movement was perfectly successful, and this morning Pine Hill was abandoned to us, strongly fortified. This morning I ordered Schofield on the right to threaten Lost Mountain, and McPherson to threaten to turn Kennesaw by the left, while Thomas pushed his whole army to break the center. Schofield carried the first line of the enemy's works, left exposed by the loss of Pine Hill, and has some 40 prisoners. McPherson carried a hill to his left front, taking the Fortieth Alabama Regiment entire, 320 strong, and Thomas has pushed the enemy back about one mile and a half, and is still moving. I hope he will pass the dividing ridge, in which case the enemy's position will be untenable. I left him about sundown, but the ground was so obscured by bushes that we could not discern whether the enemy had a second line of earth-works, connecting Kennesaw and Lost Mountain, and I did not want to give them time to form one. From Pine Hill we can see Marietta. Losses today very small, it having been one grand skirmish, extending along as front of eight miles.

An intercepted dispatch reports the death, by cannon-shot, of Bishop Polk, and it is confirmed by the prisoners.

W. T. SHERMAN,Major-General.



MARIETTA, June 14, 1864.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS:

The army and the country this morning had the calamity to lose Lieutenant-General Polk, who fell by a cannon-shot directed at one of our batteries.

J. E. JOHNSTON.



GENERAL FIELD ORDERS, 
HDQRS. ARMY OF TENNESSEE, No. 2. In the Field, June 14, 1864.

Comrades, you are called to mourn your first captain, your oldest companion in arms. Lieutenant-General Polk fell to-day at the outpost of this army, the army he raised and commanded, in all of whose trials he shared, to all of whose victories he contributed. In this distinguished leader we have lost the most courteous of gentlemen, the most gallant of soldiers. The Christian patriot soldier has neither lived nor died in vain. His example is before you; his mantle rests with you.

J. E. JOHNSTON, General.



Last account of fateful shot aftermath

Seeing that Polk had fallen, Colonels Jack and Gale, and others of his staff, raced to his side, "but life was already extinct." There was a slight tremor of the lower jaw, but the eyes were fixed and the pulses ceased. A three inch rifle ball or shell had taken effect in the left arm, above the elbow, crushing it and passing through the body, and also through the right arm, just below the shoulder joint, having it in the same mutilated condition as the left, portions of the integuments serving to secure the arms still to the frame. The opening in the chest was indeed a frightful one, and in all probability, from the direction of the missile, involved the heart and lungs in its course. Under heavy fire, Polk's escort carried the mangled body down the mountain to the shelter of a ravine where his fellow officers gathered around. Hardee, kneeling beside the body, said to Johnston: "This has been a dear visit…little did I think this morning that I should be called upon to witness this." Johnston replied, "I would rather anything but this." The body was then taken by ambulance to the Relief Committee ward of Dr. J. N. Simmons in Marietta, where the remains awaited a coffin. Polk's faithful horse, "Jerry," was led riderless behind the ambulance.


Polk's and wife's crypt at St. Paul's in Augusta.

Smith - Gilbert Gardens

To enhance this small mountain as a Georgia Natural Wonder, I visited this small public garden just down the street on Pine Mountain Road.



I came back to this park with my daughter and her gorgeous friend with her son.



Smith-Gilbert Gardens is the City of Kennesaw’s botanical garden.



Voted one of the top five places to take children in the Atlanta metro area, the 17-acre property is rich with botanical, artistic and historic treasures.



Fifteen themed garden spaces, anchored by the reconstruction era Hiram Butler House, contain more than 4,000 curated plant species.



The award-winning “Garden with Wings” butterfly house and pollinator garden promote conservation of beneficial Georgia native plants and insects.



The crevice garden displays a gardening style and plant collection rarely seen in the southeastern United States.





Robust collections of hydrangeas, camellias, conifers and roses along with woodland and perennial gardens inspire visitors to explore variety for their own landscapes.



Blending horticulture and art, the bonsai collection includes more than 70 specimens.



Employees are diligently trained during monthly work sessions that are open to garden visitors.



Thirty remarkable garden sculptures by nationally and internationally known artists add drama to the landscape.



Koi ponds, a waterfall, and child-friendly play structures throughout the property round out the experience.







With a variety of plantings, the Hiram Butler Home (ca. 1880) and 31 sculptures, Smith-Gilbert Gardens has something for everyone.



At the center of Smith-Gilbert Gardens is the historic Hiram Butler House, dating back over 150 years.



The house was once owned by Mr. Butler, a Confederate railroad man, who worked the lines most of his life and was present during the "Great Locomotive Chase."



In 1970, Mr. Richard Smith and Dr. Robert Gilbert bought the Hiram Butler House and surrounding acreage in Kennesaw, Georgia.



Over the following 35 years, they realized their dream of developing the house and grounds, with an emphasis on unique plantings and thoughtfully positioned sculpture.



Now open to the public, Smith-Gilbert Gardens is 16 acres of serene setting with over 3,000 species of plants, several rare in American gardens.



United by woodland paths, the Gardens consist of separate groupings with individual elements of fascination.



These include the Bonsai Exhibit, Palladino Camellia Garden, tea house and waterfall area, Rose Garden, and Conifer Display.



Our Garden is a proud member of various horticultural groups including the American Conifer, American Daffodil, American Hosta and the Southeastern Camellia societies.



We are also a designated wildlife habitat by the Atlanta Audubon Society. Both our Rose Garden and the Conifer Collection have received special recognition as places to visit by their respective societies.



Smith-Gilbert Gardens’ conservation mission is evident throughout the gardens.



A minimal-toxicity ethic means that we curtail the use of chemical treatments in garden maintenance. Through best practices in collection management and collaborations with Georgia Power, State Botanical Garden of Georgia and Atlanta Botanical Garden, we work to preserve global plant biodiversity and improve local habitat. Our educational programs share knowledge of and passion for nature, while inspiring participants to be conservation minded.



Our GNW Gals Pine for your vote.